The run
- Network
- Syndicated
- Years active
- 1940–1950
- Surviving broadcasts
- 26
- Genre
- western
"This broadcast inaugurates a new radio series: true murder mysteries brought to you by The Police Reporter. Carefully planned crimes which were solved by intelligent effort and clever detective work. The cases we dramatize for you actually happened. The following true murder mystery is an example." So opens the first broadcast of The Police Reporter, a twenty-six show series of some of the most sensational, brutal and gruesome murders in history. From the 1557 London case of Lord Charles Stourton, to the 1931 case of John "Red" Downing, the convict who built Ohio's first electric chair--only to be executed in it, these were sensational, headline-grabbing crimes, many of which garnered worldwide attention. Crimes so horrible that you didn't want to hear about them, but then you just couldn't help yourself. Digitised by the Old Time Radio Researchers and streamed from the Internet Archive item “police_reporter”; these recordings are in the public domain.
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
4 dated broadcasts across 16 years on the air, with 15 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1935, in original transmission order.
- 1. The Case Of Warren J Lincoln · 14 Feb 1935
- 2. The Case Of Gus Chapman aka The Georgia Slave Murders · 21 Feb 1935
- 3. Die with the Old Year · 28 Feb 1935
- 01
The Case Of Warren J Lincoln
14 Feb 1935 · 14 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 02
The Case Of Gus Chapman aka The Georgia Slave Murders
21 Feb 1935 · 14 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 03
Die with the Old Year
28 Feb 1935 · 14 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 04
The Case Of Rudoph Falk aka A Murder Solved By A Microscope
7 Mar 1935 · 14 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 05
The Case Of Abraham Becker
14 Mar 1935 · 14 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 06
The Case Of Ava Liboff aka An Extramarital Affair That Leads To Murder
23 Mar 1935 · 14 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 07
The Case Of Mrs. Daniel Bonzo
28 Mar 1935 · 14 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 08
The Case Of Ludwig Brandt aka A Case Of Insurance Fraud
4 Apr 1935 · 14 min
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Also on Syndicated
Syndicated in 1940–1950
Other series the network carried while Police Reporter was on the air.
Same seasons
western on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
The adult western
Gunsmoke was sold as the first adult western: moral ambiguity, weather, silence. Serialised folk horror and long-form fiction inherited its patience.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of Police Reporter
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
More to explore
Chosen by the same editors.
